VC++ Redistributing

Symptom: I keep bumping into this issue. Once in a while my VC++ application does not even start on the targe computer.

Cause: The root cause is that the target computer does not have the VC++ library to support the applications. I works with server products, so I usually just install VC++ library once and expect all my future updates can be done by xcopy only. However, because I turned on auto-update on my development computer, my Visual Studio 2005 keep changing the library it is linked against. So once in a while xcopy deployment is broken.

Fix:

• Sometimes it can be fixed by simply running Windows Update
• Run VC++ Redistributable Package on the target computer. It is located here: %PROGDIR%\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\Bootstrapper\Packages\
• More options here: Choosing a Deployment Method